1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to read and write timing generators, disk drives and related methods.
2. Description of Related Art
As is known, many varieties of disk drives, such as magnetic disk drives are used to provide data storage for a host device, either directly, or through a network such as a storage area network (SAN) or network attached storage (NAS). Typical host devices include stand alone computer systems such as a desktop or laptop computer, enterprise storage devices such as servers, storage arrays such as a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) arrays, storage routers, storage switches and storage directors, and other consumer devices such as video game systems and digital video recorders. These devices provide high storage capacity in a cost effective manner.
As a magnetic hard drive is manufactured it is formatted at the factory. The formatting process lays out a plurality of concentric tracks of data on that disk that are separated by wedges of servo data distributed at equal angular displacements. The servo data includes a track number and a wedge number that are used by the disk controller to locate desired tracks and sectors of user data that are stored on the disk. Each wedge of servo data is preceded by a servo address mark that consists of a detectable pattern, such as an area with no magnetic transitions, that is used to indicate that the servo data will be coming up next. While the servo address marks are used to guide the reading of servo data, independent clock signals are used for timing of read and write operations. Because of the speed and high track density of modem disk drives, errors can occur in reading the servo address mark and, in particular, it is not uncommon that a servo address mark can be missed altogether,
A sizable market has developed for these devices and the price per unit of storage has steadily dropped. Modem host devices are provided with greater storage capacity at reduced cost, compared with devices that where manufactured a few years earlier. The need exists for efficient disk drives that can store and retrieve data with greater accuracy and at greater density.